So, first off, I am still running despite my lack of blog updates. I take the bar on Tuesday and Wednesday of this coming week. To help create as much time as possible to study I decided to stop posting on the blog and doing other little things that add up to extra time I could have my nose in the books. Today was a great day for me. I owe my race to Josh and John for sure. I think I have mentioned many times on here that I am physically to a point where I can run faster, but mentally I am a weakling. I am finally starting to build up that mental toughness and am starting to believe that I am a faster runner. Over the last few weeks I have really tried to run a lot more without focusing on my pace and my watch. On the days that I just go for an "easy" 8 miles without looking at my pace I have been averaging almost 45 seconds per mile faster than I did on similar runs before the Ogden Marathon. I will talk more about this in later posts I am sure but that theory played a role in today's race for sure. Up until yesterday I was planning on using Timp as a test to see how I was in preparation for the Big Cottonwood full in September. It is similar in that the first 2/3rds of the race are downhill with the last 1/3rd being relatively flat. I had planned on running about a 6:40 down the canyon and then trying to hold about that same pace on the flat to come in right around 1:27. But, I messaged Josh in the afternoon and he told me that he was willing to pace me at a 6:08 in the canyon if I wanted. My initial reaction was there was no way I could do that without blowing apart. I then gave it some thinking and told myself that I was capable of that pace if I just followed suit and didn't bother looking at my watch in the canyon. I knew that if I looked down and saw a sub 6:10 pace my mind would freak out and I would fall apart. So, I decided to commit to staying with Josh as long as I could. Maybe it would only be one mile or maybe I would make it all the way to mile 8. Josh and I ran a 2 mile warmup up the canyon and then met John Hille at the start line. John said he was shooting for about a 1:25 so I asked if he wanted to run with us. I figured if things went decent I could try and hang with John and come in close to my goal time of 1:27. We took off at our planned pace and it felt pretty good. I tried to stick to the plan of not looking at my watch as much as possible. I think I looked maybe a total of 5 times in the canyon. I got in a groove, that was only interrupted once by a bathroom stop, and just rolled with it. John and I ran side-by-side for nearly the entire canyon with Josh right in front of us. We came out of the canyon right at about a 6:06 or so average. I was still feeling pretty good, but knew that the flat and rollers along the golf course were going to slow me down. I was ok with that because I had planned on it. I mostly just wanted to stay sub-7 or close. As I crossed the mile 9 sign I started to really feel the heaviness in my legs. I just kept on going and didn't look at my watch. I knew at this point that it didn't matter. I just needed to keep a good pace based on my feel. If I were to look down and see a 7:15 I would get frustrated and would probably slow more. If I were to look down and see a 6:45 I would probably think that is too fast and that I couldn't hold it until the end. At mile 10.5 I decided to back off just a bit and I faded behind John. By 11.5 I was feeling a little better and not in that frame of mind of totally hating it anymore. I finished strong and was stoked to see the clock reading 1:23.xx when I approached the finish. I gave a little kick and passed a couple people in the last 1/4 mile. I am stoked with my PR of 1:23:42. I am more excited for how I know that I am capable of doing what I did. Thanks to Josh and Hille for sure for sticking with me and helping me throughout the run! [the times from my watch might be a little off. each time we passed a mile marker our watches wouldn't beep for another 100 meters or so likely due to the canyon etc. still a close representation of our splits] | 1 | 6:06.2 | 1.00 | 6:06 | | 2 | 6:15.7 | 1.00 | 6:16 | | 3 | 6:18.7 | 1.00 | 6:19 | | 4 | 6:09.1 | 1.00 | 6:09 | | 5 | 5:58.9 | 1.00 | 5:59 | | 6 | 5:56.5 | 1.00 | 5:57 | | 7 | 6:08.9 | 1.00 | 6:09 | | 8 | 6:07.7 | 1.00 | 6:08 | | 9 | 6:47.4 | 1.00 | 6:47 | | 10 | 6:37.9 | 1.00 | 6:38 | | 11 | 6:49.9 | 1.00 | 6:50 | | 12 | 7:03.5 | 1.00 | 7:04 | | 13 | 7:03.8 | 1.00 | 7:04 | | 14 | :18.5 | 0.05 | 5:45 |
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